The present invention relates to the field of electronic design automation and, in particular, to improved techniques for computationally efficient and accurate optical proximity correction.
Optical proximity correction or OPC is a photolithography enhancement technique commonly used to compensate for image errors due to diffraction or process effects. The need for OPC is seen mainly in the making of semiconductor devices and is due to the limitations of light to maintain the edge placement integrity of the original design, after processing, into the etched image on the silicon wafer. These projected images appear with irregularities such as line widths that are narrower or wider than designed, these are amenable to compensation by changing the pattern on the photomask used for imaging. Other distortions such as rounded corners are driven by the resolution of the optical imaging tool and are harder to compensate for. Such distortions, if not corrected for, may significantly alter the electrical properties of what was being fabricated. Optical Proximity Correction corrects these errors by moving edges or adding extra polygons to the pattern written on the photomask. The objective is to reproduce, as well as possible, the original layout drawn by the designer in the silicon wafer.
Using traditional approaches, optical proximity correction is computationally complex and takes significant amount of computing resources and time. An improved approach with techniques that utilize graphical processing units (GPUs) is needed to accelerate optical proximity correction.